**Dr. Mohd Nazip Suratman**

Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, UiTM, Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

> Faculty of Applied Science, UiTM, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

> > **1**

**Chapter 1**

Introductory Chapter: Today's

The decline in the world's biodiversity is recognised as a key facet of the environmental crisis in which the twentieth century has seen the most farreaching ecological change that provides the greatest threat to the planet and to human survival. There is continuing understanding, starting from the famous Earth Summit in 1992 through to the 2012 Rio Conference, that urgent actions are needed to secure core natural assets such as woodlands and biodiversity matters. At the turn of the century, world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration and outlined eight chapters and key objectives or targets and 2015 as the deadline [1]. These targets are globally known as millennium development goals—ranging from peace; development; environment; human rights; and the vulnerable, hungry, and poor. In 2015, countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Implementation and success will rely on countries' own sustainable development policies, plans, and programmes and will be led by countries. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be a compass for aligning countries' plans with

"As we hurdle towards 2030, Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15 cannot be overlooked, because that's where biodiversity and nature reside—life below water, 14, and life on land, 15. And to get to 2030 we need to get biodiversity right," said IUCN Director General Inger Andersen [3]. The Protected Planet Report 2018 reviews the achievement of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, which stresses for the effective and equitable management of 17% of terrestrial and 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. The report confirmed that the world is well in line to meet the coverage aspect of Target 11 and highlighted the need to meet related aspects by 2020 [4]. This chapter focuses on the management of PAs and NPs—arguably the world's most depleted resources and the initiatives taken by countries when delivering their obligations mainly under the auspices of IUCN both within and beyond national jurisdiction. The chapter falls into five sections. The brief review of the world's biodiversity, the role of IUCN, and the impending threats to world's biodiversity is outlined in Section 1. Next, Section 2 outlines the"IUCN Categories" as well as the growing importance of PAs and NPs. Section 3 presents the major threats to conservation and the implications they brought to PAs and NPs. Section 4 presents a review of some major global initiatives, which exist alongside the statutory designations of the PA system in some countries as case references. All these initiatives have been led by"third sector"

National Parks (NPs) and

Sustainable Future

*Ahmad Naqiyuddin Bakar*

their global commitments [2].

**1. Introduction**

Protected Areas (PAs) for a

## **Chapter 1**
